Hammer Throw champions and records

The current world record for the men's hammer was set by Yuriy Sedykh (of the former USSR) who threw 86.74 metres at the European athletics championships held in Stuttgart, West Germany in 1986.

The current world record for the women's hammer was set by Tatyana Lysenko (Russia) who threw 77.80 metres in Tallinn, Estonia on 15 August 2006.

In the men’s top ten list of all time performers, East-European athletes have almost complete dominance: 4 athletes from the former Soviet Union, 3 from Belarus, inclusing Ivan Tsykhan, who threw only one centimetre below the world record in 2005, 2 from Hungary and one lone representative from Japan.

Remarkably, Yuriy Sedykh has thrown a record 14 times over 84 metres in his career.

Top Ten performances all time, Men (updated 19/5/2009)

86.74

Yuriy Sedykh

URS

11/06/1955

Stuttgart

30/08/1986

86.73

Ivan Tsikhan

BLR

24/07/1976

Brest, BLR

03/07/2005

86.04

Sergey Litvinov

URS

23/01/1958

Dresden

03/07/1986

84.90

Vadim Devyatovskiy

BLR

20/03/1977

Minsk

21/07/2005

84.86

Koji Murofushi

JPN

08/10/1974

Praha

29/06/2003

84.62

Igor Astapkovich

BLR

04/01/1963

Sevilla

06/06/1992

84.48

Igor Nikulin

URS

14/08/1960

Lausanne

12/07/1990

84.40

Jüri Tamm

URS

05/02/1957

Banská Bystrica

09/09/1984

84.19

Adrián Annus

HUN

28/06/1973

Szombathely

10/08/2003

83.68

Tibor Gécsek

HUN

22/09/1964

Zalaegerszeg

19/09/1998

Among the ladies, Eastern European dominance is again the rule. The top ten performers of all time feature 3 athletes from Russia, 2 each from Belarus and Poland, 1 from Slovakia; the field is completed by a German and a Cuban athlete.